On a frigid January afternoon, artist David Goldes stood in his studio, gazing at nichrome wire generally used in toasters woven through a diorama made of plywood panels. When electrified, the nichrome wire goes white hot, the structure almost burns down, and the artist takes a picture of this lit-up moment.
Goldes, who has been fascinated by electricity for as long as he can remember, originally trained as a biologist and chemist in the late 1960s and early '70s. The world of art was light years away at the time, not even on his radar. But one evening when he was in graduate school at Harvard, where he studied molecular genetics, something that a Nobel Prize-winning scientist said struck him.
"I went to a New Year's Eve party, and there were three Nobel Prize winners in the living room," he said. "And I said to myself, 'You know what, I'm never going to be that. I'm not. That's not me. I'm not brilliant.'"
After that, he got out of the science game but took his passion for electricity, chemistry and genetics to the world of visual art, pursuing a master of fine arts in photography from SUNY Buffalo. The drawings on display in his new solo exhibition "Unpredictable," now on view at Dreamsong Gallery, are a testament to that.
To make the drawings, Goldes — who worked as a professor of photography at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design for more than 30 years and is represented by Yossi Milo Gallery in New York — plays with electricity.
First, he draws on paper using graphite and/or silver leaf, being sure to leave small gaps between the marks. Then, he places a wire connected to a 15,000-volt source onto the paper and turns it on. The electricity hops around, burning through the gaps, conducted by the graphite or silver leaf. The result is surprising burns, holes and other mysterious, unpredictable marks.
In the print "Microbia," rust-colored, magenta and bluish blotches appeared inside circles and ovals of silver.
The unpredictable elements are everything.
Electrify It
Bringing monsters to life a la Frankenstein didn't inspire the series, though — it all started with a book by British scientist Humphry Davy, written shortly after Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the battery.
"Once they had a source of electricity that they could actually work with — because prior to that there was only static electricity — and once the battery was invented, Davy decided to test everything that he could to see what was a conductor," Goldes said.
That same spirit of experimentation with what could be a conductor guided Goldes' work.
"I went to the MCAD bookstore and bought graphite sticks, many kinds of graphite pencils — anything that contained graphite for drawing," he said. "I tried all of them and I came up with a version of graphite that was most conductive and that's where it started.
"I was very excited about the possibility that this material could have two functions — and in a wonderful way they were the antithesis of each other."
The idea of creation and destruction through the use of electricity guided this new series. He'd make a drawing, then literally electrify it and see what transpired. Sometimes it was a slow burn; other times, a shock and mini fire.
But who wants to make art and then let it possibly destroy itself? For Goldes, that's much of the fun.
"It is an inherent conflict that is the kind of thing that I like, this creation and destruction simultaneously with the agent of electricity," he said.
The idea of unpredictability, which guides his works, happens every day. The precariousness of the pandemic also inspired the series.
"I was coming to my studio during the lockdown period, and I was thinking about microscopic images at times, about viruses and the idea of invasion."
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'Unpredictable '
Where: Dreamsong Gallery, 1237 NE. 4th St., Mpls.
When: Exhibition ends March 11.
Hours: Noon-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. Check with gallery before going to make sure it's open.
Info: dreamsong.art, 646-703-4473 or 917-373-0216.
Special event: Book launch for "Unpredictable Drawings" (Radius Books) on March 3 at 5 p.m. followed by a question-and-answer session and book signing.
